hi can someone please show me a dizign for making a shaping bench that is cheep to do as im just starting out i have herd of somany things to use but i have no pic’s to go by sorry if someone has all ready asked this can you point me in the right direction of the archives . i would like to get some designs for making a bench that i can shape the deck,rails,rocker . & to glass on . thanx dan tis all bout fun
Here’s a real easy way to make racks - you need about 6 feet of 4x4 lumber, a couple of 5 gallon buckets, a couple small bags of concrete, and 4 Strong-Tie brackets, number A311. (That’s just an L-shaped piece of metal with some holes in it). First, cut 2 lengths of 4x4 (one for each bucket) so that when stood on end, each comes up to somewhere below your hip bone. Stand them up in the 2 buckets. Mix the concrete and pour it in, pretty full so they are heavy. (You can buy premixed stuff made for setting fence post, perfect for this application, about $1 a bag). Use a level to make sure the lumber is straight up and down. When the concrete has set, attach the 4 Strong-Tie brackets, using wood screws to attach the brackets to the lumber. Arrange them so that the “L” shape is upside down, and on opposite sides of the board. Again, use a level to make sure each pair is level, otherwise your board won’t be. They should stick up above the board about 5 inches or so – you can adjust this overall height up or down depending on how tall you are, but the hole between the brackets needs to be deep enough to support a blank (or board) when sitting on its rails, and when you lay a blank flat on the flat part of the brackets it should be at a height near your belly button. Now all you need is some foam rubber (or old carpet scraps) about 4 inches wide and 18 inches or so long; these get taped in a “U” shape to cover the flat part of the brackets, pushed down into the space inbetween them, and up the other bracket. Put the two buckets in a line about 5 feet apart, and there’s your shaping/glassing/sanding rack. I’ve seen plans for making them out of plywood too, but I prefer 2 unattached stands, because you can move them farther apart for longboards, close together for fish, etc. Oh, one more thing. If you don’t want to buy buckets, you can use anything similar. I’ve recycled old plastic camping coolers with success, they are rectangular, about 30 inches by 18 inches. Total cost = maybe $10 – less if you use recycled buckets & lumber.
That sounds almost exactly like how I made mine. Granted, I went to home depot and bought everything and it cost me about $40… I used some nice foam insulation tape to wrap the racks for protection. I sunk some post holders into the concrete, and bolted my 4x4s to them, so that I could remove the racks from the buckets if I wanted to later. I’ll try to post some pics… They seem to be working great so far!
With all the dragging around of similar racks, the plastic buckets developed rounded bottoms…If you can attach a piece of plywood under the bucket before filling it with concrete, it’ll stay less tippy…I’d use some screws with nuts and fender washers inside the bucket…
any pix would help out heaps with the process of this .thanx for the info so far guys its all good . dan